[B]URLINGTON — The final documents certifying the sale of Burlington Telecom to Schurz Communications will be approved during a special Burlington City Council meeting on Dec. 27.
Councilors met in executive session before a scheduled meeting Monday to iron out details of the purchase and sales agreement between the city and Schurz Communications, which won the right to purchase Burlington Telecom after a long and divisive council meeting late last month.
The delay is the latest in a sale process that has seen much public criticism, deadlocked votes, a councilor’s recusal and a failed joint bid.
The city’s share of net proceeds from the sale will drop from 50 percent to 35 percent if the final agreement is not reached before Jan. 1.
In order to meet that deadline, the council will hold a special session on Dec. 27 to certify the deal.
“Which will mean we have met our deadlines. Barely, but we will have met them,” said council President Jane Knodell, P-Central District.
Knodell said the purchase and sales agreement — the legal document that officially turns over Burlington Telecom to Schurz Communications — will be released to the public on Wednesday.
After the council accepts the agreement next week, the Burlington Telecom sale must also be approved by the Vermont Public Service Board. That process could take months.
Burlington Telecom is owned by Bluewater Holdings. The assets for the fiber optic telecom system are leased back to the city in an arrangement that was reached after a settlement with Citibank. The 2014 settlement ended a $33 million lawsuit by the bank, which lent money to Burlington Telecom when it was owned by the city.
Shay Totten, one of the reporters who first covered the unfolding Burlington Telecom scandal, when then-Mayor Bob Kiss propped up Burlington Telecom with $17 million in taxpayer funds, is now seeking public records detailing what went down in the months leading up to the sale.
Totten is now the communications director for the advocacy group Rights and Democracy. He wrote the “Fair Game” column at Seven Days from 2008 to 2011.
Totten, Dean Corren, a former Vermont lawmaker and progressive candidate for lieutenant governor, and several others filed a records request Thursday seeking records between the city and Citibank. The request was not filed on behalf of Rights and Democracy or any other organized group, Totten said.
“It’s me as a citizen and as a longtime journalist, I know the public records law pretty well, I felt like there were some unanswered questions,” Totten said Monday.
Totten said he hopes the documents will reveal more about the circumstances behind Citibank’s threat to sue the city should it have approved the local co-op bid, Keep Burlington Telecom Local. Totten and many attendees of council meetings supported KBTL.
“It didn’t seem like it came out of nowhere. As a former journalist, my senses went off,” Totten said.
Should the city deny Totten’s request, he said he is unsure if he will be able to mount a legal challenge.
His former employer, Seven Days, has filed a lawsuit against the city for public records that were heavily redacted. The request was for communications about a decision made by Councilor Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, to recuse herself prior to a planned vote on Burlington Telecom bids. Paul soon after quit her job at the accounting firm McSoley McCoy & Co. in order to avoid the conflict.
